Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Using Pliers To Pull A Splinter

I get it. I do. I think it would have played if the satirical component of the piece were more evident instead of the somewhat ham fisted screeching of the execution.

Huh?

Don't tell. Show.

If the concept is to show the ridiculousness of the baseless whisper campaign attacks, then it misses the mark by telling what's being whispered instead of showing the wrong-headed effect of such whisper campaign. That shouldn't be hard. A cartoon is nuthin' but show. It just takes thinking deeper than the obvious. That cartoon is all obvious. And easy. And lazy, if I'm being completely self-righteous. No. I don't have a suggestion. That's not my job; I'm not a satirical artist. That's Barry Blitt's job. He's done it before. Just not this time, in my opinion.

And, for the record, those of you who say a joke can't be taken: people may be outraged, without a sense of humor, because it has been all too easy and commonplace to depict people of color in such inelegant fashions without a thought of what effect such depiction has. Go to estate sales this weekend and I guarantee you that there'll be a mammy cookie jar or some such other piece of memorabilia. Still. Now. In 2008. And I gotta see it among the LPs and bad oversized jewelry and mahogany secretaries and know that the cookie jar has been sitting up in someone's kitchen with little hands in it for possibly generations. And the owner didn't think someone like me would be there; they thought they'd be selling their belongings to "collectors," not me, stopped dead in my tracks beside the teak coffee table I was going to buy, staring at a cookie jar toothily grinning back at me.

Yeah, I can be not amused and will cop to being a tad bit oversensitive, but come on!

As a matter of fact, any amusement of mine is an accordance to you, Mr. Blitt and New Yorker, that is given because I want to, not because your art/statement is particularly profound. I'm looking past that, as I always do, because I'd like to believe your intention is not nefarious but indeed satirical in your simple ass way. I also believe an artist's expression should not be abridged, no matter how unimaginative the art.

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